Pages

Tuesday, 19 May 2015

Another dire night

Two moths came to the garden trap at Westcott, Bucks last night, a Brown Rustic and the inevitable Hebrew Character. Can it get any worse? I'll probably get the answer tonight, but if you don't try you'll never know what you missed! The Brown Rustic wasn't in tip-top condition and in any case is hardly the most photogenic of moths (being the epitome of a "small brown job") but at least it was new for this year's garden list.

Brown Rustic, Westcott 18th May

Between rain showers yesterday afternoon I had a quick look for day-flying moths in Bernwood Meadows, Bucks. The very plain-looking Glyphipterix fuscoviridella was the only species to be seen in any numbers but I did also record Adela rufimitrella, Pyrausta purpuralis and Grass Rivulet.

1 comment:

'Can it get any worse?' I'm afraid I think, looking out my window this afternoon, it can. Last night and this morning it felt like winter, I nearly put the heating on but instead wrapped up in more clothes. Today, at least here in Wallingford, we're having intermittent and quite heavy hailstorms. Last night I foolishly had the optimism to put out a second trap in my garden and was rewarded by having to check two empty traps rather than one - so your 2 moths were considerably better than you might have thought :). I also picked last night to try a little experiment marking all my male Puss Moths and taking them different distances away from my assembled female to see which, if any would come back and from how far. The female was too cold so did not display but instead obviously considered that her days were numbered and started laying unfertilised eggs. Even if she had presented I suspect the males would have been too cold to fly and even the very closest one at the opposite end of the garden would probably not have made it by crawling as it's still a good 15m with a house and gravel driveway in the way. What a year. And yet Striped Hawkmoths keep popping up on the south coast....